Scope of Change

The scope of any change has a significant impact on the approach that is
needed. A small change can be done on the fly, whilst changing everything is not
so easy.

What is changed

One dimension of scope is the amount of things that are changed.

Scope of impact

When some things are changed, they have a significant ripple on other things.
Thus, for example, changing a company policy or an organizational goal will have
a very broad impact on whoever is involved.

Amount of work

The 'what' of change equates to the amount of work that needs to be done.
This does not necessarily equate to how many people are affected, for example
where the change work involves few people, but stretches over a long period of
time.

Complexity of work

Some work is easy to do, whilst other work requires significant expertise,
such as when new products or complex IT systems need to be developed. Complex
work needs expert people who are expensive and who do not always agree with you.
Complex work also brings with it risks of failure that need to be managed.

Who is changed

The most difficult work of change is often around people.

Numbers of people

When you have to change a lot of people then, even if the change is small,
the job will not be that easy. When you have a lot of people to change, then you
may find that someone, somewhere will be more trouble than the rest of people
put together.

Degree of resistance

If you are going to implement a change that will highly unpopular into an
organization where authority is devolved to a low level (for example where most
people are 'professionals'), then you must expect a significant level of
resistance.

Four levels of scope

Combining the above 'what' and 'who', four common scopes of change can be
identified, in which different approaches may be used.